


feelings

by LittleMissWolfie



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: #LetWomenBeHorny2020, Enthusiastic Consent, F/F, Imprinting, New Moon AU, Rating will probably change, this was just supposed to be a one shot, what am I doing with my life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:33:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21739924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissWolfie/pseuds/LittleMissWolfie
Summary: When Bella falls into her deep depression after Edward leaves, Charlie calls Harry Clearwater instead of Billy Black. This sets off a chain of events no one could have ever predicted.Formerly titled "i get too attached"
Relationships: Jared Cameron/Kim Connweller, Leah Clearwater/Bella Swan, Past Bella Swan/Edward Cullen, Past Leah Clearwater/Sam Uley, Sam Uley/Emily Young
Comments: 102
Kudos: 798





	1. i get too attached

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [this post](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/541429) by shes-a-wolf-in-disguise. 



> I literally can't believe I'm writing Twilight fanfic a few weeks from 2020. What a ride this decade has been.
> 
> Anyway, this was inspired by a post I found while perusing Tumblr and I couldn't resist because I've become a fan of the Twilight Renaissance in recent weeks. I hope y'all enjoy shitty, hastily-written fanfic about two characters who couldn't be less straight.

Bella Swan is a pathetic girl, Leah thinks. And it makes her angry because she used to be a pathetic girl, too.

She never asked for this. She never asked to babysit the daughter of the white guy her dad hangs out with. But her dad said, “You know what it feels like to be in her shoes. You’re her best hope,” and Leah can’t bear to let her father down after he weathered her meltdown after Sam left, so she agreed. And now Bella is sitting in her living room in a hoodie than hangs off her too-thin frame and barely breathing. 

Jacob Black has been sniffing around the house, but Leah chased him off with her dad’s rifle after the fifth time he knocked on the door. “If she wanted you,” she spat, “she woulda asked. Get off my property.”

Everyone around her–her dad, her teachers, her friends–are babying her. And Leah doesn’t think that’s what she needs, because it’s definitely not what she needed. So she barks, “Hey, Swan, you like cooking, yeah?”

Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, Bella lifts her head and meets Leah’s eyes with her own. “Yes,” she says, so quiet Leah almost can’t hear her over the sound of the waves nearby.

“Good.” Leah throws the fridge door open and gestures vaguely to the insides. “Mom’s working a double tonight and none of the rest of us can tell our ass from a frying pan. If you’re gonna be hanging around here, you might as well pull your weight.”

Leah waits for the command to register, and watches with no small amount of satisfaction as Bella slowly rises from the couch and makes her way to the small house’s small kitchen. “Allergies?” she asks, sounding a little more sure of herself now that she has a task.

Biting back a smug grin, Leah says, “We’re garbage disposals. We’ll eat anything.”

*

Leah isn’t gentle with Bella Swan. She doesn’t talk to her in a soft voice or walk on eggshells around her. She’s loud and commanding and crude, because that’s what she wanted when she was mourning the loss of Sam and his love.

And, lo and behold, not babying an almost adult and making her confront her feelings actually _works._ Who fucking knew?

*

Leah looks at the two trashed bikes in the bed of the old truck, then to Bella, then back to the bikes, then back to Bella. “Are you _high?_ What makes you think I know anything about bikes?”

Bella doesn’t cower like she used to when Leah snapped at her. “What? Are you afraid of getting your hands dirty or something?”

“Where’d you even get these pieces of shit?” Leah asks, not willing to dignify her taunt with a response. 

“I found them on the road.”

“And you just picked them up?”

“No one else wanted them, obviously.”

“Yeah, I wonder why.”

“You can bitch at me and hold a wrench at the same time. Let’s see if we can get these babies up and running.”

And, well. A snarky, swearing Bella is a lot more entertaining than a zombie Bella, so Leah rolls up her sleeves and gets to work.

*

Bella brings a printed out tutorial for riding motorcycles to the rez after the bikes are fixed up and they spend a few days teaching themselves how to ride. When Bella falls off and scrapes her knee and passes out at the sight of her own blood, Leah runs back to town to buy her knee pads. The only kind the closest store has are kiddie ones, but Bella’s definitely small enough, so Leah buys a whole set of sparkly Barbie elbow-and-knee pads.

Bella laughs when she sees them, and the sound makes Leah’s heart thud a little harder in her chest.

*

Leah’s over at Bella’s for once, sitting with criss-crossed legs on the cool tile of the Swans’ kitchen floor while Bella whips up a lasagna that smells so good her mouth is actually starting to water, when she finally feels comfortable enough to open up.

“Do you ever wonder why your dad called my dad instead of Billy?” she asks.

Bella pauses in her layering and tilts her head down towards Leah. “Not really. Why?”

“Because he knew I know how you feel.”

Bella freezes. “What do you mean?”

And so Leah tells her about a girl and a boy, and about a life they were supposed to spend together, and about the girl’s heart-sister who took her happily ever after away.

She doesn’t even realize she’s crying until Bella’s arms (still too thin, god, she needs to eat more, what the fuck?) snake around her shoulders and pull her head to rest on her pale shoulder, exposed by her too-big Mariners shirt that is probably actually Charlie’s. “I’m here,” she says in a soothing voice that somehow doesn’t make Leah feel like she’s being pitied. “I’m here.”

It takes another twenty minutes for the lasagna to make it into the oven, but Leah doesn’t complain.

*

Despite her newfound friendship with Bella, Leah feels her temper rising. Little things like Seth using up the rest of the milk or her mom not closing her door when she leaves her room send her flying off the handle. For a few weeks she thinks it’s PMS, but when her period comes and goes and she still feels angry all the time, she starts to worry.n

It all comes to a head one night when her dad gets upset with her for a bad grade on an English test. What could have been a quiet, if heated, confrontation becomes a shouting match that makes Seth (little Seth, who’s grown what seems like a foot in a month) start edging towards the gun mounted on the wall. 

Then her dad says, “Maybe I should call Charlie and tell him not to send Bella ‘round anymore if you can’t focus on your studies–” and _that’s_ what does it. Anger tears through her like a bullet and suddenly her bones and muscles are snapping in unnatural directions and her clothes are shredding and where she was once a young woman she is now a gray wolf.

*

Leah knows she killed her father.

That’s why she doesn’t answer Bella’s phone calls. That’s why she keeps her door locked when she smells Bella coming into the house. 

Her father had a heart attack because of _her._ And she’ll never forgive herself.

Maybe being in the boys’ heads and the boys being in her head is her punishment. Having to see Emily living the life she was supposed to live is how she can pay for her father dying. 

(Except it doesn’t hurt, seeing them together. She doesn’t want Sam anymore. She doesn’t think she has in a while. The worst thing about the pack mind is Jacob fucking Black and his 24/7 Bellathon.)

(She refuses to think about the implications of that.) 

(Because Bella already loves someone else. A very male, very leech-like someone else.)

*

The day of the funeral, Bella has finally had enough.

She pounds on the door to Leah’s bedroom. “Fuck you, Leah Clearwater!” she shouts. “You don’t get to abandon me! Not like Edward! I won’t let you!”

“Leah.” She winces at the sound of her mother’s stern voice. “Bella’s right. I understand you’re hurting, but you can’t cut yourself off. Get your ass out of your room and come to the funeral, or else I’m gonna tan your hide.”

Leah’s already dressed in her funeral dress that’s a few inches too short on her, even though she wore it to old man Joseph Featherstone’s funeral six months ago. Must be the werewolf thing. She looks at herself in the hand-held mirror she nailed to her wall by the handle in an attempt to recreate a vanity a few years ago and sighs. “Time to face the music, Lee Lee,” she mutters to herself, and she stands up and throws open the door.

As soon as her eyes meet Bella’s, her whole world crumbles and rebuilds itself, with a skinny, pasty, leech-loving white girl at the center of it all. 

“Fuck,” she says. and before either Bella or her mother can react, she pulls Bella into her arms and buries her nose at the point where her shoulder slopes up to her neck and inhales, and, for just a moment, things aren’t terrible.

One day, they might even be kind of alright.


	2. i just complicate it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back on my bullshit here we go

Bella is _confused,_ to say the least.

Leah’s been ignoring her for the past three fucking days, and now she can’t keep her hands to herself. Bella _should_ be sitting a few rows back with Charlie, but Leah refused to let go of her hand and said “I need you,” and Bella felt a tug in her chest and now she’s sitting in the front row with a mourning family at a funeral for a man she barely knew.

What’s even more baffling is that Leah isn’t even paying attention to the funeral. In fact, Bella doesn’t think she’s looked at the burial canoe her father’s corpse rests in the whole time. Instead, as Bella stares resolutely forward at the line where the gray sky and the gray sea meet, she feels the burn of Leah’s stare on her neck. She’s _still_ holding onto Bella’s hand, running her thumb over Bella’s knuckles in a way that is much more distracting than it has any right to be. Every broad stroke of Leah’s thumb against her skin sends electric tingles up and down Bella’s spine. The only other time she’s felt like this was…

_Edward._

She’s still shocked she managed to say his name earlier. Usually just thinking about it sends her into one of her depressive episodes. But when she was angry at Leah, she felt like she’d do anything to get her to pay attention. Maybe that was why? Bella isn’t sure, and she’s too busy worrying about Leah’s sudden change in behavior to spend too much time thinking about it right now.

The funeral comes to a close. Bella can see Charlie waiting expectantly by the door, since they drove together, but Leah leans in and whispers, “I need to tell you something,” so she gives him an apologetic smile and promises to catch up with him later as they file away.

*

The house Leah brings Bella to is one she’s never seen before. It’s near the cliffs Bella once imagined throwing herself off of and a little smaller than some other houses Bella’s seen on the Rez, Leah starts for the small wooden steps leading up to the porch, still holding onto Bella’s hand, but pauses. “Don’t stare,” she says. “It upsets Sam.”

 _Sam?_ “Wait, your _ex,_ Sam?” Bella reaches her free arm around Leah’s front to grab at her elbow and turn her around. “Leah, what the hell is going on?”

“I–” Leah glances towards the house and snaps her attention back to Bella. “Just come inside, please?” And _that’s_ a surprise in and of itself, because Bella doesn’t think she’s ever heard Leah say _please. “_ The others will be here soon and I think this will be easier to explain with fewer people.”

And there’s this _pull_ in Bella’s chest, one that compels her to do what Leah says, so she says, “Okay, but this explanation better be good.”

The smile Leah gives her in return makes Bella’s legs go wobbly.

*

Leah bursts into the house, hand still clamped around Bella’s in an iron grip, and they startle a woman in the kitchen. When she turns to face them, Bella has to remind herself not to stare, because one half of her face is perfectly normal and the other is horribly scarred.”Leah?” the woman says, voice confused and thick, like she’s been crying. A closer look reveals red-rimmed eyes. “What–?”

But then Leah (finally) lets go of Bella’s hand to wrap her arms around the woman’s neck. The woman is obviously confused, but she returns the embrace easily, and something uncomfortable churns in Bella’s gut. “I’m sorry,” she hears Leah say into the woman’s ear. “I’m still mad at Sam, but I’m sorry I was so mad at you.”

And it suddenly makes sense. This is _Emily_ , Leah’s cousin. The one who is now engaged to Leah’s ex. 

Emily’s eyes go wide and she peers over her shoulder at Bella. “What’s going on?” she asks.

Bella can only shake her head, because she doesn’t know a goddamned thing. Leah lifts her head from Emily’s neck, steps backward, and grabs onto Bella’s waist like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Emily’s eyes shoot down to the gesture and go even wider than they already are. “Are–?”

“We need to call a pack meeting,” Leah says. “I imprinted on Bella.”

*

And.

Well.

It looks like vampires aren’t the only inhuman things Bella’s found herself entangled in.

_Great._

*

“What does imprinting mean?” Bella asks when Sam finishes explaining their roles as protectors. The tiny living room is packed full, with eight huge werewolves, Emily, another girl who was introduced to her as Kim, and Bella. There’s so little space that Bella finds herself perched on Leah’s lap, though from the way Leah’s arms are wrapped protectively around her middle, she doesn’t think she minds. 

(Jake, on the other hand, is staring at Leah’s hands, fingers interlocked and resting on the fabric over Bella’s belly button, like he could set them on fire with his mind. It hasn’t escaped Bella’s notice that her oldest and dearest friend is sitting as far away from them as the room will allow.)

Sam and another boy–Bella thinks his name starts with a J, but there were too many introductions too quickly for her to remember them all–both open their mouths to answer, but Leah growls, the sound reverberating through Bella’s chest, and that makes them stop. “I’ll explain that,” she says, and her voice is so close to Bella’s ear that it makes her shiver a little bit. Leah’s hands move from over Bella’s stomach to grasp at her hips and she turns her sideways so that she can look up into Leah’s face. “An imprint is supposed to be a gift from the gods. It was their way of making sure wolves knew who their mate was.”

Bella flushes red. “M-mate?”

“I–” Leah stops to take a breath. “Whatever you need, that’s what I am. I just need to be around you.”

“I–”

“That doesn’t make _sense_ , though!” Jake’s outburst (thankfully) prevents Bella from having to formulate an actual response, and every head in the room snaps over to look at him. “The Elders say imprinting is about carrying on the shifting gene! Why would Leah imprint on another girl?”

One of the biggest boys in the room (Peter? Paul? Something like that) snorts from where the lays on the floor by Embry’s feet. “Shut up, chief. We all know you’re just jealous.”

“You–” Jake surges to his feet.

Sam cuts him off with a warning glance, and Jake, properly chastised, sinks back down onto the floor. “We also thought Seth was too young to shift, and that Leah wouldn’t shift at all,” he points out, and there’s a grumble of affirmation throughout the room. Bella has to stifle a smile. _Men_ , she thinks. _They all think they know everything_. “Obviously the legends aren’t entirely accurate. We’ll have to fly blind.” Sam looks back at Bella and Leah, and Bella feels her spine straighten under his scrutinizing gaze. “I know this is a lot to handle all at once,” he says to Bella, “but I know you can do it. You were able to keep the Cullens’ secret, right?”

Bella nods. The name sends a spike of pain through her chest like it always does, but it’s a little duller than usual. Is this the power of the imprint?

“We’ll have to change up patrols now,” says the J-name wolf. “Leah will need time to be with Bella after school.”

“Patrols?” Bella asks.

Leah snorts derisively but draws Bella a little closer to her, belying her worry. “There’s a leech running around our forest. It’s the one that’s been killing hikers.”

Bella’s gut tightens. “What do they look like?” she asks.

The wolf sprawled on the floor scowls. “What’s that matter? It’ll be dead soon enough.”

Sam cuts him a look and he shuts up. Leah answers, “It’s a woman with red hair.”

Bella’s mind spirals. Her heart rate picks up and she vaguely hears Leah swear before her large, warm hands are snaking under the hem of Bella’s black dress, and Bella should be mortified at being touched so intimately in front of a bunch of boys she barely knows, but Leah’s touch against her bare skin calms her. She’s not entirely relaxed, but she can breathe, and if she can breathe she can talk. “Victoria,” she says, gasping a little. “That’s Victoria.”

Sam leans forward in his chair, elbows on his knees. “You know it?”

“Yeah,” says Bella. “She wants to kill me.”

Behind her, Leah growls.


	3. spent the night

Leah watches Bella’s chest rise and fall as she sleeps in the faded moonlight coming in through her bedroom window and runs the day’s events over in her head.

She remembers being unwilling to let go of Bella for more than a few moments at a time. She remembers not paying attention as the tribe said goodbye to her father because Bella was next to her and she was somehow more important. She remembers the rage building in her chest as Bella recalled the events that took place in Arizona months earlier and lead to the redheaded leech wanting to kill her.

“ _Her mate, James… he was a tracker. He wanted to track me. He tricked me into meeting him alone and bit me on the wrist_.”

Leah’s eyes trail down to Bella’s exposed wrist and the pale scar that rests there. It’s quite a bit colder than the rest of her skin, and it sparkles in the sunlight.

“ _The Cullens showed up and got James off of me, but I already had his venom in my body, and I was dying. Carlisle said Jasper didn’t have enough self-control to suck the venom out, so E-E-Edward had to do it. Emmett and Jasper killed James, and now Victoria wants to kill me.”_

The idea of _any_ bloodsucker getting their mouths anywhere close to Bella is nearly enough to make Leah phase. If one even _thinks_ about biting Bella again, she knows she’s going to actually lose it. 

She even told Bella that earlier, when she was still shaking from telling her story. “ _They’ll never get your fangs close to you again. They’ll have to go through me first.”_

_“A mate for a mate.”  
_

A mate for a mate. What bullshit. Edward Cullen didn’t even have the guts to kiss Bella the way she wanted. He might have considered Bella to be his mate, but there was no way she thought he was hers. Not anymore.

It was Sam’s idea for Bella to stay on the Rez for the night. “ _We smelled her nearby earlier. You should stick close to us until we figure out how to include your house and your school in our patrol routes.”_

_“But Charlie–”  
_

Seth had come to the rescue. “ _He won’t say no to our mom if she asks. He knows how close you and Leah are.”_

And so here Bella was, sleeping in Leah’s bed and wearing an old t-shirt of Leah’s and _not much else,_ while Leah stands guard over her. Bella had laughed when Leah told her the plan. “ _E-Edward used to do that, you know. I’d leave my window open and he’d come in and watch me sleep. He didn’t need to sleep, but he said he liked watching me do it.”_

Leah had growled. “ _That’s creepy as hell, Bella. Jesus. I’m not watching you all night. I’ll crawl into bed when Embry comes to take over watch.”_ And Bella had blushed all pretty at the thought of Leah sharing a bed and rolled over and shut her eyes and pretended to sleep. She must have been more tired than either of them thought, because she hadn’t needed to pretend for long before her breathing evened and her heart slowed to a resting pace.

Bella whimpers and unconsciously tugs the threadbare blankets up closer to her chin. Leah decides _fuck waiting for Embry_ and pulls the covers back just enough to slide into her twin bed next to her imprint.

 _Imprint_. Still the biggest issue in the room, aside from the vampires. Bella had looked up at her earlier and asked, “ _How strong is the imprint?”_

“ _From what Sam and Jared say, it’s pretty damn strong. Sam sat on Emily porch for weeks before she even let him inside because he couldn’t stand to be too far away from her.”_

“ _And it makes you love me?”_

Leah had reached out to cup Bella’s cheek. “ _I don’t know. I mighta fallen in love with you without it.”_

“ _Doubt it.”_

“ _Hey.”_ Leah sat up a little straighter. “ _Don’t sell yourself short. You’re not too bad.”_

Her plan had worked, spurring Bella to laugh a little, and their worries melted away, if just for a little bit. But then she’d sobered and said, “ _Sam will want to talk to the council tomorrow. About us. It’s weird enough for me to have shifted at all, but imprinting on another woman is a whole other issue.”_

“ _Will you be in trouble?”_

_“I don’t think so. They have too much respect for the wolf god to try to go against him. But it might be intense.”_

_“You’ll be there with me?”  
_

_“You’d need a crowbar to pry me off of you.”  
_

The bed is just crowded enough to give Leah an excuse to wrap and arm around Bella’s waist, but Bella doesn’t seem to mind, because she flings her leg over both of Leah’s and snuggles closer to her warmth. Leah lets loose a happy rumble in her chest and falls asleep quickly, content.

*

Bella’s still asleep when Leah wakes up, and Leah takes a moment to appreciate her position. Bella has somehow wormed her way around during the night so that she’s laying on top of Leah, touching almost no part of the bed except for where her toes brush against the sheets. This makes Leah much happier than is probably healthy, but she can’t bring herself to care. 

A soft knock falls on her bedroom door and it opens to reveal Seth’s face. “Sam called earlier while you were asleep. The council wants to meet with us after breakfast.”

“Where?” Leah asks, pitching her voice low to avoid waking Bella. From the way she’s sleeping, she could use all the rest she can get.

“First Beach. They’re setting up for a bonfire tonight and didn’t want to waste time going to and from the community center.” 

Leah hums. She remembers Bella coming to a few LaPush bonfires in the past. She wonders if she’ll want to go to this one. “Okay. Is breakfast almost ready?”

Seth casts a glance at the still-sleeping Bella. “Mom isn’t feeling up to cooking. I was wondering if Bella wanted to.”

Leah is loathe to wake Bella up, but her stomach is going to be angry soon if she doesn’t get any food into it, so she gently shakes her shoulder. “Hey, Bella. Wake up.”

*

Bella cooks breakfast.

It might be the imprint talking, but Leah’s pretty sure she’s never tasted anything better in her life.

*

Leah, Bella, and Seth walk down to First Beach after they clean up the kitchen. Leah keeps her arm around Bella’s waist the whole walk, rationalizing it by calling on Bella’s clumsy nature and the uneven ground leading down to the waterfront, though from the way Bella leans into her side and lets her head rest partially on her shoulder, her imprint doesn’t care too much. 

They’re the last three of the relevant people to arrive, and Jacob fucking Black is still glaring at her, but, hey, she’s got Bella, she’s _touching_ Bella, and she can’t bring herself to be bothered by his adolescent anger. Bella, on the other hand, seems a little more pained at her friend’s scorn, and Leah tightens her grip to comfort her.

Billy Black and Old Quil stand alone on the beach. There’s a pang in Leah’s heart at the sight; just a week ago, her father would have been standing with them. Beside her, Seth sniffles a little, but keeps his resolve. He’s a trooper, Leah knows, and he’s not going to let him being the youngest member of the pack make him a target for teasing. 

Old Quil looks irritated. Well, at least Leah _assumes_ he’s irritated. He always looks grumpy no matter what. “Thank you for joining us,” he says, the slightest bit of acid in his voice. Leah bristles, and she doesn’t need to look to know that the rest of the pack does, too. Even in human form, they’re in sync more often than not. They mean more to each other than any crusty old council will, and now that Bella is an imprint, she’s included in that. Emily is pack, Kim is pack, Bella is pack. That’s just how it is.

“We apologize for our lateness,” Seth says. “Our mother wasn’t feeling well so we had to make and clean up after breakfast.” 

Billy winces at the mention of their mother, though Old Quil doesn’t seem the slightest bit moved. “Yes. Leah, Sam tells me you have imprinted.”

It’s not a question. Leah answers, “Yes, I have. Yesterday, I imprinted on Isabella Swan.”

Old Quil doesn’t even blink. “That’s impossible,” he says. “She is a hòkwat’, and a woman. She cannot help you further the shifting gene.”

Leah feels Bella tense at the unfamiliar word, most likely because of the venomous way Old Quil says it, and she readies to leap to her imprint’s defense, but Sam beats her to it. “With all due respect, are we so sure imprinting is about reproduction? In the legend, Taha Aki does not feel the need to have children with the Third Wife; he actually _stops_ shifting in order to grow old with her.”

Billy smiles. “Good memory, Samuel.”

“What is _your_ theory, then?” Old Quil asks.

Sam squeezes Leah’s shoulder–the first time he’s really touched her since she shifted–and steps past her so he stands between Old Quil and her and Bella. _He’s protecting us,_ Leah realizes. “My theory,” he says, “is that imprinting is a way to help us ground ourselves to our human halves. The women we imprint on remind us of our mortality and help us to make rational decisions with that awareness.”

“And you would have me believe that a girl who has aligned herself with the Cold Ones is someone who would bring such a balance to a protector?” Old Quil asks.

“Yes,” says Sam, “because Bella and Leah are two _women–”_ He emphasizes _women_ in contrast to Old Quil’s flippant language– “who have known true heartbreak, and who have bonded over that heartbreak. Neither of them is willing to risk losing another love again. Double that awareness, and we have the most careful protector we could ever hope to have.”

And Old Quil, who probably does have more to say, shuts his mouth and dismisses them.

*

Bella comes to the bonfire that night. Leah sticks by her side the entire time, almost like she’s been super glued to her, but Bella doesn’t complain. Leah enjoys watching her get to know the rest of the pack, fumbling with names from the rushed introduction yesterday and bonding with Kim and Emily over their shared imprint status. “I hope you’re not too easily embarrassed,” Kim teases, “because the guys have absolutely no shame.”

Bella looks up at Leah questioningly, and Leah answers her unasked query. “Shifting suddenly usually tears our clothes up, so if that happens, we have to walk around naked until we find replacements,” and Bella goes fire engine red and sends Kim into hysterics. 

Jacob eventually makes his way over to them, still looking upset but not as angry as he was earlier. “Can I talk to you?” he asks Bella, and Leah knows he means alone.

Bella looks up at her and gives her a smile, like she knows what’s going on in her head. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Okay,” says Leah, even though she doesn’t feel very okay about this at all, and lets her go.

*

Bella returns a few minutes later, looking much more at ease, and she fits herself into Leah’s welcoming arms like she’s never been anywhere else. “I have school tomorrow,” she tells Leah, and Leah knows she’s really saying _I need to leave soon._

 _“_ I’ll drive you home, Leah says. She doesn’t like the idea of Bella being off the Rez, but she knows Bella needs to go to school. If she has any chance of a life after all this is done, she needs a high school diploma. “Let me just tell Sam.”

Sam is more than happy to let Leah drive Bella home. “In fact,” he says, “why.don’t you stay in Forks tonight?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s not good to be away from your imprint for too long, and she’ll be in school and doing homework all week long. Nighttime is the only time you’ll get to see her for a while.”

Leah wilts at the reminder that she won’t be able to be with Bella all day every day (and _wow,_ what a pussy she’s turning into, huh? Damn imprint) and agrees.

*

Bella goes into her home through the front door, changes into her pajamas, says goodnight to Charlie, and opens her bedroom window.

“Leah?” she asks, voice quiet in the darkness of her room. They’re in Bella’s bed, much like they were in Leah’s last night, only this time they have to be quiet because Charlie is unaware of their little sleepover.

“Yeah?”

“You really love me?”

The absolute doubt in Bella’s voice is heartbreaking, and it makes Leah want to kill Edward fucking Cullen ten times over. “Yes, I do. You’re the most important thing in my entire world.”

“So you’ll never leave me?”

“I can’t go to school with you, but I’ll do my best to be here more often than not.”

Bella hums and presses herself closer to Leah’s heat. “Good.” Then, Leah feels cool fingers travelling up to cup her cheek, and she’s tilting her head down and Bella’s tilting her head up, and that first, tentative meeting of lips, almost too gentle to feel, is everything Leah never realized she wanted.


	4. it's really not that fair

Bella worries at her bottom lip with her teeth and taps her pencil on the hard plastic desk. A few of her classmates glare at her and she knows she’s being annoying, but it’s Friday, and that means Leah’s picking her up from school.

That is, if the damn clock will ever _move_.

It’s a little ridiculous, how much Bella misses her. She’d snuck into Bella’s room the night before (just like she had every night since the imprint) and woken her up with a soft kiss before she left this morning, so it’s been at most, like, nine hours. But it still feels like a little part of Bella is missing, and there’s a tug in her chest that goes towards LaPush, towards _Leah._

From what the pack can tell, Victoria’s backed off since she realized Bella was under their protection. This suits Bella just fine, because she has enough on her plate, what with graduation coming up, with the imprint, with _Leah._ She’s just glad she already has her college situation figured out.

Neither Charlie nor Renee were thrilled with her decision to take classes online, but it’s for the best. Her GPA suffered a major hit when she was so depressed, after all, and most places she could have applied to were already closed to applications when she was suddenly reminded of her steadily approaching graduation date a few weeks ago. Her other reason, which had gone unspoken to her parents, is _Leah._

Bella knows it’s generally a bad idea to base one’s college decisions around their significant other, but the imprint complicates things. She’s sure she _could_ go away, but it would be painful, both for her and for Leah. And there’s no way Leah could come with her due to tribal issues; her status as a protector to the tribe overrules any other obligations she has. Sam could let her go, but he’s not in any position to go against Old Quil and Billy.

So Leah has to stay. And so Bella will, too.

The bell finally, _finally_ rings, and Bella gathers up her books and shoves them in her backpack as quickly as she can. Her body thrums, and she knows it’s because Leah is in the parking lot, waiting for her. 

In the desk next to her, Angela laughs. “What’re you in such a rush for, Bella?” she asks, a teasing note in her voice. “You got a hot date or something?”

Bella freezes.

It wouldn’t be a _lie_ to say no–Bella can’t imagine anyone calling a pack dinner a hot date, unless their idea of a hot date is holding hands with their significant other while half a dozen half naked teenage boys inhale food like they’re never going to eat again.

But on the other hand, she can’t say the whole thing isn’t romantic. This past week, Bella felt like she was dying the longer she spent away from Leah. Leah is like _oxygen,_ like a cool drink of water on a brutal Phoenix day, like coming home. At no point will Leah ever not be the most important part of her life. Not anymore.

But _how_ can she express that to Angela? Bella hardly understands the intense connection afforded by the imprint _herself._ And with the added… _everything_ surrounding same sex relationships…

Yeah. No. Bella’s not ready to tackle that yet.

So she gives Angela a smile she hopes isn’t too tight around the edges and says, “That’s a secret.”

*

While she wants nothing more than to run into Leah’s arms when she sees her leaning against her red truck, Bella, mindful of her schoolmates’ stares, settles for a faster-than-normal walk and a hug that’s just a tad too long to be platonic. She feels and hears Leah taking a deep inhale of her hair. Bella can’t imagine how hard this time apart has been for her–from what she can tell, the imprint is a stronger pull for the wolf.

“Hey,” Bella says when they separate.

“Hey,” Leah replies. She hoists Bella’s backpack onto her own shoulder and holds her hand out for Bella’s keys. “Do you need to go home before we go to the Rez?”

Bella hands over the keys and nods. “I wanna drop off my books and grab some extra clothes.” At Leah’s arched eyebrow, she flushes and adds, “I-in case I’m too tired to drive home!”

“Sure, sure,” Leah says, unapologetically stealing Jake’s catchphrase.

They climb into the cab of the truck, and they don’t touch again until they’re a mile away from the school.

Bella’s heart aches.

*

It’s easier at LaPush.

There, everyone knows about them. There’s no pretenses, no excuses, no hiding. It’s just Leah and Bella, and they’re together, and no one minds, just like no one minds Sam and Emily, or Jared and Kim.

After the ravenous pack dinner, everyone retires to Emily’s living room, and Bella once again ends up perched in Leah’s lap, and she relaxes against her shoulder while the pack talks shop. Emily and Sam are sharing the big living chair Sam usually occupies, fingers intertwined, and Kim is sitting cross-legged on the floor with Jared’s head in her lap. It’s a testament to the power of the imprint that none of the other guys comment on the couples’ obvious closeness. With any other group of friends, Bella thinks, there’d be immediate teasing.

After a confirmation that Victoria hasn’t been seen around the Rez either, things become much less formal. Emily whips up a new muffin recipe for Bella and Kim to try, “because the pack will eat anything, I can’t trust their opinion on my food, I need an outsider’s voice.” The pack takes advantage of the semi-warm day and starts roughhousing outside, shouting and tackling and just having fun. It warms Bella’s heart to see Leah and Sam being so friendly with each other now, without the pain of Sam’s imprint lingering over them. 

“I wish it could always be like this,” Bella says around a mouthful of cranberry orange muffin. It’s delicious, of course. Bella can cook, sure, but Emily’s the expert baker around here. “No teenage angst, no Victoria hanging over us, no hiding…”

“Hiding?”

Bella blushes when she realizes she’s spoken aloud. “Uh…”

“No, no,” Kim says, persisting. “What do you _mean,_ hiding?”

“It’s just…” Bella has to pause for a second, and takes another bite of her muffin to stall. “I don’t know how to explain what I have with Leah to the people in Forks. So I figure, hey, maybe I’ll just let them think we’re good friends, but then Charlie will say something like, ‘I’m so glad you have a friend like Leah,’ or my friends at school will tease me about dating, and I just wanna _scream,_ you know?”

Emily makes a comforting sound in the back of her throat and lays a hand on Bella’s shoulder. “I can’t imagine how hard that must be for you. Like living a double life, right?”

“Yeah.”

Kim leans up against Bella’s shoulder in a show of sisterly support. Because that’s what she and Emily are–Bella’s _sisters._ Not like Alice, who wanted to use Bella as a living dress up doll, or Rosalie, who seemed to hate the fact that she even existed, but actual, genuine _love._ In being imprinted on by Leah, she got not only her soulmate, but an entire family of support. 

“Buck up, Bella,” Kim says, giving her arm a little hug. “Things’ll get better when you move out here.”

“What?” _Move out here?_ Bella didn’t realize that was part of her future plans already.

Kim cocks her head. “Aren’t you, though? Leah says you’re just taking online classes, so there’s no school commute to think about. And as far as the council is concerned, you being an imprint makes you pack, and being pack means you’re tribe. You have every right to live here.”

“ _Kim,”_ says Emily, a warning on her tongue, but Bella cuts her off.

“It’s fine, Em. It’s just not something I’ve thought too much about, is all.”

Her eyes seek out Leah in the dog pile of pack, and when she sees Leah’s smile, everything seems okay.

*

“What was bothering you earlier?” Leah asks, later, when they’re lying in Leah’s bed with their legs tangled together.

Bella starts. “You knew?”

“I wasn’t trying to listen, but I could tell you were upset.” One of her hands comes up to comb through Bella’s hair. “Talk to me.”

Bella sighs and snuggles closer to Bella’s reassuring heat. “I don’t like having to pretend we’re not together when I’m not on the Rez,” she says, voice soft. It’s harder to say this to Leah than it was to Emily and Kim earlier. “I hate it whenever someone calls you my friend, because you’re so much more than that, and I want to tell everyone how much you mean to me, but I have no idea how to.”

Leah grunts. “I wish I could make it better for you.”

“Not your fault.” Bella yawns. “When I told Kim and Emily earlier, Kim said I should just move to the Rez after I graduate.”

Bella feels Leah’s whole body stiffen. “Really?” She’s trying to sound nonchalant, but Bella can hear the excitement in her voice.

“Really.” She reaches up to stroke her thumb along Leah’s cheekbone. “Is that… something you’d like?”

“Absolutely,” Leah says, with no hesitation, not even a little bit. Her lips, chapped and warm, press against Bella’s forehead. “I want you forever. I want your good mornings and your good nights. I want your bedhead and your morning breath, and I want your hair clogging up the drains, and I want to hear you humming in the kitchen while you cook and see you biting you lip while you read before bed. I want _everything,_ Bella. Everything you’re willing to give me.”

Bella feels her eyes grow warm. It’s ridiculous, she thinks, that after less than a week of dating she feels ready to commit. But she _wants._ She wants _so badly_ to be Leah’s forever, for Leah to be hers.

“I’m willing,” she says, not even embarrassed at the way her voice cracks with emotion, “to give you forever, if you promise me the same.”

And so they talk, long into the night, about a little house by the cliffs, of a built-in bookshelf in the bedroom by Bella’s side of the bed and a kitchen with an island and a big living room so the pack can come over, and they don’t fall asleep until the sun is peeking over the horizon.

“One day,” Bella says, just before she drifts off, “I’ll be able to tell the whole world, ‘I love Leah Clearwater,’ and no one will be able to do anything about it.”

Sleep claims her before she feels Leah go stiff, and before she realizes that this is the first time she’s spoken about love.

Before she can hear Leah say, “I love you, too.”


	5. sex and fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have had this up earlier but I got Animal Crossing: New Horizons and I'm weak. Enjoy your smut.

The one thing about the imprint Leah has studiously been avoiding is the sexual aspect.

It’s not like she’s pretending it doesn’t exist. Jared and Kim fuck like bunnies on crack, and there’s definitely a reason Sam and Emily moved the wedding up and Sam keeps shutting the pack out of his mind during runs. They’re not nearly as sneaky as they’re trying to be.

And it’s not like she doesn’t want Bella. Oh, how she _wants._ Every night they share a bed, legs intertwined, Bella’s head on her shoulder, is a test in restraint. When Bella bites her lip, Leah thinks about how much _she_ wants to bite that lip. Every time her shirt rides up over her stomach or falls a little low on her shoulder, it takes all of Leah’s willpower not to explode.

 _And_ Bella isn’t particularly _shy_ when it comes to expressing her own wants, either! She lets her touch linger a little longer than necessary, looks up at Leah through her dark eyelashes, runs her fingers up and down Leah’s spine… and through it all, Leah can smell her arousal, can see the desire in her big doe eyes. It’s maddening in the best possible way.

It’s just that it’s impossible to get a damn second _alone._

When they’re at the Rez, they’re either at Leah’s place or with the pack. They can’t get up to anything around the pack for _obvious reasons,_ and when they’re at Leah’s, Bella’s instincts to take care of everyone fire up and she cooks and cleans and helps Seth with his English homework and coaxes Leah’s mom to change out of her dirty work scrubs and take a nice bubble bath. 

(The worst part of Bella’s caring nature is the jealousy that Leah feels from it. Bella is _her_ imprint. She should be cooking for _her_ and feeding _her_ and helping _her_ bathe.)

(And then she feels guilty, because Bella is helping Seth pass his worst class and her mom function under the loss of Leah’s father, and she knows she should be grateful.)

(Damn imprint.)

At Bella’s house, Charlie looms. He’s trying his best, Leah can tell, bumbling around and making sure they’re having fun and _can I get you girls anything? Popcorn? Chocolate? Want some money to go shopping?_ like Bella’s ever voluntarily gone shopping before in her life. Bella explains to her in hushed tones that since her mother took her away so early in her life, this past year has been Charlie’s only real chance to be a father, and that’s why she endures his clumsy affection.

Then, one night, her patience is rewarded.

*

It’s a Friday night, and Leah’s staying at Bella’s until her patrol starts a little after midnight under the ruse of a sleepover. That’s one of the few perks of the whole “not telling Charlie they’re dating” thing: Charlie’s more than willing to let Bella and Leah spend the night together on the weekends.They’re laying on Bella’s floor, listening to some dumb pop song blaring from Bella’s radio while Bella reads, her feet propped up in Leah’s lap. Leah’s never been much of a reader, so she absentmindedly thumbs through one of the books Bella lent her without really reading it. she’s more focused on tracing little patterns into the soles of Bella’s feet, grinning every time Bella squirms away due to the tickling. 

Charlie, as he always does, gives a quick knock on the door before poking his head in. Strangely enough, he’s back in his uniform, when he’d just changed into pajamas when he got home from work a few hours ago. “I just got a call,” he tells them, and he waits for Bella to turn the music back down before he continues. “Perry called in. His wife went into labor early and he can’t come in for his night shift, so I’m covering for him.”

“Okay,” Bella says, and Leah can see her trying (and failing) to not send her an eager look. “Be safe.”

“I will. Love you, kiddo.” He bends down to kiss Bella on the forehead. “Have a good evening, ladies.”

The room is tense, quiet, as Leah listens for Charlie’s cruiser to pull out of the drive and down the street. When she’s sure the coast is clear, she turns to Bella, and her nostrils flare at the arousal she smells and sees.

Bella’s big doe eyes are blown wide, her face flushed (with anticipation or nerves, Leah can’t decide), her fists clenching in her lap. Her book is laying face down on the floor, forgotten, and had Bella been in her right mind, it would have been bookmarked and put neatly away on her bookshelf. That in itself gives Leah a big hint as to what Bella is hoping for.

And.

Well.

What kind of wolf would Leah be if she denied her imprint so?

Their lips come together like they were never meant to be apart, mouths open and tongues searching. Leah grabs Bella’s hips and hauls her up so that she’s straddling Leah’s lap, and even on her knees Bella only barely comes up to Leah’s face. Her fingers grasp at Leah’s hair, and Leah’s arms snake around Bella’s waist, pulling her closer, _closer._ They could never be close enough. 

When they have to part to breathe, both panting, Leah takes only a moment to recover before she starts trailing kisses down Bella’s jaw, her neck, her shoulder. She finds a fleshy bit of skin between her neck and her shoulder and _bites,_ bites and sucks, and Bella moans and _holy shit if that isn’t the hottest thing she’s ever heard–_

Bella’s hands fall out of Leah’s hair and start tugging on the hem of her old tank top. “Off,” she whines. Leah leans back to whip her shirt off and catches sight of the mark she left on Bella’s pale, pale skin. The sight of it there, paired with the knowledge that Leah’s the one who made it, makes a hot need flare up in her belly.

And then Bella’s taking her shirt off too, and Leah has more important things, like Bella’s cute checkered bra and the tits it’s holding, to think about. She reaches out and crushes Bella back to her, and the skin-to-skin contact of their still-covered breasts and their bare stomachs is more than she thinks she can handle. “Bella,” she says, hands grasping for the clasp of her bra. “Bella, can I–”

“Yes, yes, please,” Bella says, breathing hard against Leah’s neck, and Leah flicks her fingers and unhooks it. She moves Bella’s hands off her shoulders just long enough to let the bra fall to their laps, and then, as if driven by instinct, Leah leans down to lick.

Bella gasps. “Oh my god,” she says, clutching Leah’s head to her chest, where Leah is more than happy to be. Her hips grind down, and this time it’s Leah’s turn to moan. “Yours too,” Bella says when Leah comes up for air. “I wanna see you, too.”

Leah instead kisses her, soft but insistent, until Bella’s breathless again. “In a second,” she says against her lips. “I wanna get you on your bed first.” There’s no way in _hell_ Leah’s letting Bella’s first time happen on her bedroom floor when there’s a perfectly fine mattress just a foot and a half away.

Bella lets herself be lifted into Leah’s arms, and Leah stumbles a little for the first time since she started phasing when Bella’s legs wrap themselves around her waist. Her imprint giggles. “Are you turning into me or something?” she asks. “There’s nothing on the floor except our clothes!”

“I guess you’re rubbing off on me,” Leah jokes. Her knees bump into the side of the bed, so she lays Bella down and sinks to cover her. 

A playful look enters Bella’s eyes and she tightens her legs around Leah’s waist. “I can think of a few other ways to rub off on you.”

Leah widens her eyes comically. “Who taught you to talk like that?”

“Quil and Paul.” Bella grinds her hips up, making Leah grunt. “Now hurry up, I wanna see you.”

Leah chuckles, but reaches behind to her free herself from Bella’s legs so she can sit up on her knees and peel her sports bra over her head. Almost immediately she feels Bella cool fingers on her skin, and she gasps. Her touch is electric at the most innocent of times, but in this context, it sets Leah on fire.

But this is _Bella’s_ first time. _Bella_ should be getting pampered. So Leah leans back down and slides her fingers up the creamy expanse of Bella’s thigh to the hem of the athletic shorts she was wearing to bed. Bella’s breathing hitches, and Leah says, “Is this okay?”

“Please,” Bella answers, and so Leah tugs.

The worst part about getting undressed is not being able to touch, so Leah shucks both Bella’s shorts and underwear and her own while she’s up. Bella’s whine at the sight almost _hurts,_ and Leah’s back on top of her as quick as she can be, pressing a long, lingering kiss to her lips. 

Leah’s not a virgin–she and Sam were together for _years_ before he started phasing–but she’s never been with another woman before, so she feels like she might as well be, so she decides to play it safe for tonight (and makes a mental note to drive Bella to Port Angeles some weekend and check out one of the sex stores over there). She presses one of her knees against Bella’s core and grinds with it.

Bella makes a high, keening moan, arching up into Leah’s body. “Oh my _god,”_ she says, “do that again.”

“You’re the one who said you wanted to rub off on me,” Leah says. 

Bella’s glare is adorable, and Leah can’t resist dropping another kiss on those pouting lips. Still, Bella does as Leah says, and starts moving, rolling her hips into Leah’s knee. Her little gasps and moans have a profound effect on Leah, who feels her own arousal swelling even though she hasn’t touched herself. It’s almost like she’s getting feedback from Bella’s pleasure, which is an interesting thought.

An interesting thought that can be examined _later._

Leah lets her hands wander over the planes of Bella’s body, stopping for a press _here,_ a pinch _there._ Every time her eyes find the mark she left on Bella’s shoulder, she leans down and gives it an extra suck. And with every touch, Bella’s blunt nails dig into Leah’s back. Leah finds herself wishing she didn’t heal so quickly; she’d be proud to wear Bella’s marks the way Bella’s wearing hers right now. 

Eventually, Bella’s whines become one long, uninterrupted sound of desperation, and her hips move faster and faster. Somehow, Leah knows she won’t be able to find completion on her own, so she reaches down and presses down on her clit.

Bella _howls,_ clenching her arms and legs around Leah’s body as she shakes. Leah feels wetness against her thigh and moans, flexing her own hips down on instinct even though there’s nothing there to rub against. So, while Bella is distracted by her own orgasm, Leah brings her fingers to her own center and rubs herself to completion, letting loose a grunt as she does.

She collapses on top of Bella, who doesn’t complain. She just lets her tired, sweaty arms wrap loosely around Leah’s neck and hums into her shoulder. When they’re able to move even the slightest bit, Leah rolls them over so they’re facing each other on their sides and gives Bella a kiss much more chaste than anything they’ve shared this evening. “How was that?” she asks.

Bella giggles and slaps her shoulder. “Don’t fish for compliments, Leah Clearwater. You know it was good.”

“Good.” She reaches behind her to flick off Bella’s table lamp. “I love you,” she says.

Bella’s hand cups her cheek tenderly. “I love you, too.”

And, exhausted, they fall into a dreamless sleep.


	6. i can't help but care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bella gets a call from a disco ball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aslsdkfhsdlkfajd I'm sorry for that summary

Bella should’ve figured something was going to happen soon. Her life’s been too good lately.

Sure, finals and graduation are looming, and that sucks, but Leah is _amazing,_ and they haven’t slept apart since the night they first had sex. Even on school nights, Leah sneaks in through Bella’s window, and even if they don’t have sex (which they do, more often than not; Bella’s eighteen and horny and Leah’s an animal half the time), she curls up around Bella and they sleep together in the purest sense of the word. Her touch and presence ground Bella in a way she hadn’t realized she was missing.

The pack’s pretty great, too. For one, it’s great to have Jake back as _Jake_ and not a hormonal teenage boy. They laugh together and he shoves seaweed down her shirt and she steps on his toes when he’s being annoying, and it’s just like when they were kids, which is all Bella ever really wanted from him. And all the other guys are just as brotherly as Jake, and when she and Leah told them about their little house by the cliffs, Sam called in some favors with the construction company he works for to get some quotes.

It’s all looking like it’s actually possible now.

(Of course, Bella will have to figure out something to tell Charlie about her suddenly moving into a one bedroom cabin with another woman on a reservation white people generally aren’t allowed to live on, but that’s a problem for future Bella, not now Bella.)

So it really shouldn’t come as a surprise when her phone rings and she sees Alice Cullen’s name flash across the screen.

Leah’s out on patrol for a few hours, and Bella’s all finished up with her homework when the call comes, and her hands shake as she accepts the call. “Alice?”

_“Bella? Oh, thank God, I’m so glad you’re alright!”_

Just hearing Alice’s voice makes Bella’s mind want to melt. It calls out to the pleasant memories Alice is a part of, and it says _love me like you used to_

But Bella remembers the pain Edward caused to her, the pain their whole coven caused the pack, and she steels herself.

“Why are you calling me?” she asks. “Edward said it would be like you’d never met me.”

There’s a pause, like Alice wasn’t expecting Bella to be so cold to her, before that melodic voice continues. _“Victoria is back.”_

Bella bites back a bitter laugh. “Yeah, I know. She’s been running around the woods here for months, killing hikers and trying to get to me.” Then, just to be a bitch, she adds, “Thanks for the heads up, though.”

Leah would be proud.

“ _We thought you were dead!”_ Alice says. “ _Bella, I haven’t had a vision of you in months!”_

Bella scoffs. “You shouldn’t be _looking._ You guys are the ones who left me, remember? You don’t get any say in my life anymore.”

Alice makes a mournful noise, and Bella’s mind so desperately wants to reassure her, to tell this beautiful voice that it’s not her fault, but she holds herself firm. “ _We didn’t want to leave you. Edward thought it was the best way to keep you safe.”_

Her former love’s name feels like it should hurt, but it doesn’t. Leah could never fill the hole Edward left, and she’s never tried, but she healed the wound, took away the hurt, and gave Bella enough peace to move on with her life. “He shouldn’t have made decisions for me if he was going to regret them down the line.”

“ _Bella, you don’t understand. Your future is all black now. What did you decide?”_

 _What did she decide?_ What a load of bullshit. None of them ever cared about her decisions before. _“_ I decided to be happy.” 

“ _And I’m happy for you,”_ says Alice, “ _but we’re coming back to make sure you live long enough to be happy.”_

Her strength melts away. This simple statement–it’s a _threat,_ of the blackest kind. It’s easy to be cold to Alice over the phone. She can’t see her beautiful face or feel the touch she would inevitably give her. And that’s just _Alice._ If she sees Edward again, she has no idea what she’ll do.

The fear that cuts through her does two things. It tells her that the Cullens did indeed have some kind of unnatural hold on her. Maybe it was unintentional at first, but it was there nonetheless. It also lets Bella know that she needs Leah, _right now._

Maybe it’s a dumb thing, but Bella reaches for that bond that glows bright in her chest and tugs.

“ _Bella? Are you there?”_

Shit. Alice is still on the phone. “I wish you wouldn’t come back.”

“ _But we are. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”_

“When will you be here?” Bella asks, mouth dry. The bond tugs back, and she bites back a gasp.

“ _By the end of the week, everyone will be home. I just landed in Seattle.”_

_Thanks for the heads up,_ Bella thinks, rolling her eyes. She feels Leah getting closer to the house, too fast to be running in her human form. If Leah hears Alice, she’s going to flip. “Look, I can’t talk about this right now. Things aren’t the way they used to be. We can arrange a meeting or something when everyone’s back. But please don’t call me until then. Please.”

And then she hangs up before Alice can respond.

It’s barely a minute later that Bella hears her front door open and that familiar warmth blooms in her spine. She’s on her feet, tears springing to her eyes, and then there’s Leah in her room, taking her in her strong arms and trembling with worry. “What happened?” she asks against the crown of Bella’s head. 

“Alice called me.” Leah doesn’t say anything, so Bella pulls back and sees the confusion in her face. “One of the Cullens,” she amends, and Leah’s face immediately darkens. 

“What does she want?” Leah growls.

Bella leans back forward and rests her forehead against Leah’s shoulder, breathing in her soothing scent. “She says they’re coming back. All of them. By the end of the week.”

“Are you okay?”

“No,” Bella says. Because she isn’t. And she knows Leah won’t begrudge her for it.

Leah’s arms tighten around her, completely encompassing her, keeping her _safe._ “We need to talk to Sam,” she says. “The pack needs to know.”

“I know.”

“I won’t let them touch you. They’ll have to kill me first.”

 _That’s what I’m scared of,_ Bella thinks, and she holds on just that much tighter.

*

The pack is, of course, furious when Bella and Leah tell them about Alice’s phone call.

“The fuckin’ _balls_ of them,” Paul seethes, “to think they can just _come back_ after leaving someone in the fucking _woods–”_

“More of the kids are gonna start shifting because of those assholes!” Jake yells.

It’s a mess of loud, angry voices, and Bella knows she would have been scared of any other group of angry men, but she knows these angry men won’t hurt her, so she doesn’t let herself flinch. She sits next to Leah on the couch, their fingers interlocked. She’s Leah’s _partner._

Sam quiets the yelling with a barked, “Enough!” and Emily’s living room goes silent. “Bella,” he continues, “what can you tell us about them, in terms of their abilities?”

Bella takes a deep breath to steel herself. “Well, they all have enhanced senses and physical abilities, obviously. Jasper is an empath. He can feel and influence emotions. Alice can see the future, though what she sees changes depending on the choices people make. And Edward can read minds.”

Leah’s head whips around. “He can read _minds?_ Did he ever do that to you when you were dating?”

Bella shakes her head. “No. He can’t hear me. He always said that was one of the reasons he was so interested in me.” Involuntarily, her free arm moves so she can hug herself, like she’s trying to keep herself together. “I was the only person whose mind he couldn’t read.”

Leah lets go of her hand to wrap and arm around her shoulders and squeeze. “I’ve got you,” she whispers in Bella’s ear, and Bella feels herself relax.

Sam crosses his arms. “If they call you again,” he tells her, “give them my number. There’s absolutely no reason for you to have to deal with them when you’re part of my pack.”

“I’ll probably see them at school,” Bella says.

“Then we’ll have someone patrolling near your school during the day.” Embry plops onto the couch on Bella’s other side and bumps their shoulders together. “You’re our sister. Bella. We protect our own. Those sparkly twigs aren’t getting anywhere near you.”

Bella nods and tries not to cry, and she’s grateful when no one comments when she does.

*

Leah takes Bella out for a walk later, after the meeting, to the place they’re thinking of building their house.

“Billy says the land is ours whenever we want it,” she tells Bella, arm wrapped around her and fingers playing with the exposed skin just above the waistband of her jeans. “The back door can face the woods so the pack can come in after runs. Our bedroom window can look over the cliffs.” She points towards the crashing waves with her free hand.

Bella smiles a little. “Maybe we can have a little garden in the front,” she suggests. “Just some fruits and veggies. That way we can eat fresh stuff without having to go to the store all the time.”

“And we’ll park your truck there, under that tree.”

“We’ll have to put down some gravel, or else Jake will bitch at me about getting mud on the tires.”

“That’ll be our driveway, then. Maybe I’ll get Paul to build a carport so birds don’t use your windshield as target practice.”

“That sounds nice,” Bella says, leaning more of her weight into Leah.

Leah presses a kiss into Bella’s hair. “Now are you gonna tell me what’s bothering you?”

“Besides everything?” she asks. When Leah gives her a bland look, she sighs. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I just… I wish they didn’t affect me so much.”

“The Cullens?” Leah asks.

Bella nods. “I’m happy. I know I am. But when Alice called, for just a second or two, I wanted them back.” The admission stings Bella’s throat, but she knows it needs to be said. “I hate that I still want them when I have you and the pack.”

Leah squeezes Bella’s hip. “It’s okay to be conflicted, Bella. I’m just happy you told me.”

“You’re not mad?” Bella asks.

“I think it’s impossible for me to be mad at you.” Leah turns Bella so she can lean down to press a soft, lingering kiss to her mouth. “You have a choice. You always have a choice. All I can do is hope you choose me.”

“I do!” Bella says desperately. “I choose you!” Then, her point made, she lowers her voice to say, “You just have to help me remember that when they’re here.”

Leah’s gaze sharpens. “What does that mean?”

“Vampires have these–pheromones, I guess? They can draw people in, make them trust them and love them, that kind of stuff. Edward said it’s what makes them the perfect predators. They make their prey feel safe first.”

“So they’re basically walking roofies?”

“I–I guess?”

A grunt falls from her lips. “Of course. As if our jobs weren’t hard enough.” At odds with her tense words, her hands run soothing circles down Bella’s back. “Don’t worry. I’ll be beside you every step of the way.”

Bella breathes her in and relaxes. As long as she has Leah, she doesn’t need to be afraid.

Hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all liked this! Next time, we get to have Leah fuck with Edward, which will hopefully be hilarious


	7. i over-communicate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't write crowd scenes I'm sowwy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My summaries are always so cursed. My apologies.
> 
> Please be aware that there is racist and homophobic language in this chapter. I'm not trying to make Edward into too much of a villain, if only because romantic subplots like that bore me, but I think it would be in character for an unchanging Puritan to use this kind of language. It gets called out as soon as he says it, so no worries there. If any Native Americans read this and see a better opportunity to flesh this out, please feel free to comment here or send me a message/ask on my tumblr so I can correct it.

A week later, Bella’s phone rings.

Leah’s with her this time. They’re sitting on First Beach, their bare toes in the water and Bella’s head on her shoulder, when the ringtone breaks through the comfortable silence they’ve been enjoying. She changed it recently, after Leah complained about the old one being too shrill for her ears. Bella groans and says, “It’s probably Charlie,” shifting her hips a little to fish her phone out of her back pocket, but she freezes when she sees the Caller ID.

Leah leans over to look and confirms her suspicions. _Alice Cullen_.

Bella answers the call with shaky hands. “Alice?”

 _“Bella_!” the leech says, her shrill voice painful for Leah’s ears. _“We came to your house but no one was home! Where are you?”_

Leah has never been so grateful for the pack mind. She can only hear the others when they’re wolfed out, but Sam can hear them all the time, and she sends out a distress signal as quickly as she can. Even without being linked to him, she knows he heard, and that their pack will be here soon.

All Bella has to do is keep the leech on the phone.

“I’m at First Beach, in LaPush,” Bella answers. Her voice shakes, and Leah twines their fingers together in a show of silent support. She’s gratified when Bella squeezes her fingers in response. Her voice is a little stronger when she says, “I’ve been spending a lot more time here since your family left.”

Leah hears the leech hiss on the other side of the line. Beyond that, she hears the pack coming closer, from all sides of the rez. _“Bella, you’re not safe there. I’ll have Edward come get you–”_

“No,” Bella says sharply. “No, I’m staying right where I am. When Sam gets here, I’m putting my phone on speaker, and you can hash out the details with him.” She sounds so much more confident now than she did when she was describing her last conversation with Alice to Leah a few days ago. Leah’s so proud.

She’s so proud she can’t resist pressing a kiss to Bella’s hairline. Bella makes a contented noise in response. 

_“Bella,”_ says the leech _, “you’re not acting like yourself. Is something wrong?”_

 _She’s not acting like a dog waiting for her owners to come home, you mean_ , Leah thinks.

As if she heard Leah’s unspoken thought, Bella rolls her eyes at her. “I’m just fine, Alice. But you can’t honestly expect me to just fall back into your arms again. Not after you all abandoned me.”

 _“We only left to protect you,”_ says the leech. Leah turns her head and sees Jared and Quil coming down towards them, stony looks on their faces.

Bella grunts in response, and she’s saved from saying anything else as the rest of the pack descends on them. “Look,” she says to the leech, “Sam is here now, so I’m putting you on speaker.” It’s probably more for Bella’s sake than anyone else’s–Leah knows the rest of the pack can hear the phone just fine. 

Sam takes over before the leech can respond. “This is Sam Uley,” he says, using his commanding Alpha voice, “the Alpha of the Quileute tribe. I would like to speak to Dr. Cullen.”

Leah’s impressed. She wouldn’t be _nearly_ as polite.

*

A meeting is set up for after the sun goes down, right at the treaty line. Bella comes home with Leah, makes dinner for her family, and naps in her bed until it’s time to leave.

“Say the word and I’ll run you back here,” Leah promises.

Bella shakes her head. “I think I need some closure,” she says, squeezing the hand Leah has on her thigh. “I’ll come home with you when this is all over.”

Leah leans in close to nuzzle at Bella’s head. “I know. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

*

When the pack arrives at the treaty line, the leeches are already there. They stand unnaturally still, with pale skin and unblinking eyes and unbreathing lungs. It’s the creepiest fucking thing Leah’s ever seen, and she edges Bella just a little behind her, close enough to grab her and run away if this whole thing goes to hell.

Of course, Leah’s just a tad too late, since the leeches have already seen her. “Bella!” says the smallest one, looking like she’d like to throw herself at Bella if not for the treaty, and that sets the rest of them off, talking over each other and clamoring for attention. “Bella!” “Bella!” “It’s good to see you, Bella.” “Tiny as ever, have you even grown at all?” “Bella!” It’s fuckin’ annoying. 

Then, the redheaded guy says, “Bella,” with a voice thick with emotion, and Leah thinks, _Ah. This is Edward._

She’s proven correct when Edward’s yellow eyes jump to her. “I see she’s told you about us. Thank you for taking care of her while we were away, but I don’t think that is necessary any longer.”

Bella grabs onto Leah’s arm and squeezes. Leah _feels_ the pack bristle. Bella is _theirs_ now, by both her choice and theirs. She’s not going any damn where near those leeches without any of them. 

It’s the leech’s turn to get angry, but his anger is just below the calm surface. When he speaks again, it’s directed solely towards Bella, who is now hiding her face in the back of Leah’s tank top. “Bella, love,” he says, voice dripping with honey, and from the way Bella stiffens against her, the pheromones are at work. “I’m sorry for leaving you all alone. You must have been lonely. Surely you knew I would always return to you.”

Bella trembles, but her only move is to tighten her grip on Leah even further. “I’m glad you’re doing okay, Edward,” she says, voice thin. Leah wishes, not for the first time, that Bella wasn’t so damn polite. 

Edward opens his arms, and Leah really, _really_ wants to deck him in that pretty face of his for assuming Bella would just fall back into him after everything he’s done to her. “Come, darling.”

“She ain’t goin’ _anywhere_ with you,” snaps Jake. “Bells is pack!”

The leech leader blinks, just for the drama of it, probably. “No, she isn’t,” he says. “Bella is human.”

Sam steps forward to take command of the situation, and Leah is more than happy to have most of the crowd looking at him instead of at Bella. “Bella is an imprint. The wolf god chose her as a mate for one of my wolves, and she’s accepted that bond. That makes her as much pack as any of us.”

At the words “accepted that bond,” Leah’s mind flashes back to the first time she and Bella had sex, to her dark hair splayed out on her sheets and the contrast between tan and pale and the cries she made. _Damn,_ now she’s just revved up again. Maybe she can convince Bella to go for another round when this is over–

Edward hisses, the sound dangerous, and the pack squares up as one. “You’re _lying,”_ he says. “My Bella would _never… fornicate_ with a… a _redskin!_ And especially not a _woman!”_

From behind her, Leah hears Paul growl. “Did he _really_ just fucking call us ‘redskins?’”

“Homophobic _and_ racist,” Embry drawls. “How charming. You sure know how to pick ‘em, Bells.”

Leah starts to say something, but then Bella’s wiggling herself in front of her, a determined look on her face, and she decides to let her mate do her thing. “Edward,” she says, voice stern, “that kind of language is completely uncalled for. I don’t care _when_ you were born, there’s no excuse to use racially-charged slurs.”

“Please tell me they’re lying,” he begs, eyes trained on Bella. “My love, tell me you haven’t given yourself away to them.”

 _Damn._ That’s a hell of a fuckin’ thing to say. 

Bella draws up to her full height. “You have no say in what I do or do not do with my body, Edward. You gave up that when you decided to leave me in the middle of the woods by myself and then disappear for months.” Bella reaches out for Leah’s hand, and their fingers twine together. “I’m not yours, Edward. You made your choice, and I made mine, and I’m happy just where I am. No matter her gender or the color of her skin, I _refuse_ to apologize for loving Leah.”

The blonde leech looks begrudgingly impressed by Bella’s speech, and the tiny one and the two older ones look sad but accepting, but Edward is _pissed._

 _“That’s enough!”_ yells Sam, and things quiet. “We’re here to discuss a threat to both of our groups,” he continues. “I understand there’s personal and emotional baggage here, but the Victoria threat is much more present and much more dangerous at this moment in time. We need to focus on that right now.”

Edward backs off.

They start the meeting.

*

Hours later, sweaty and naked in Leah’s bed, Bella is asleep while Leah’s mind races. A newborn army and a leech with a vendetta against her mate are things that are hard to ignore, and the thought of sending Bella back to school with the _other_ leeches in these last few weeks before her graduation makes her want to tear her hair out. She can’t _stand_ the thought of Edward being that close to Bella on a daily basis, not after what he said tonight.

“Mmmm.” Leah’s drawn out of her thoughts by Bella’s grumble. One of Bella’s tiny hands cups her jaw. “Y’think too loud. Sleep.” 

Leah can’t help but chuckle. “Alright, alright.” She relaxes back into her pillows and tugs Bella closer to her chest, burying her nose in her hair. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

They’ll figure something out in the morning. For now, they tangle themselves up in each other and find some well-earned rest. 


End file.
